Prison furloughs causing future financial liabilities to mount

CHINO - Implemented to help the state sock away $2 billion, the governor's furlough order imposed on prison guards may end up eating away half the savings in the long run.

"Prisons don't close three Fridays a month," said Chuck Alexander, a vice president of California Correctional Peace Officers Association. "This governor saved a couple of bucks yesterday, but the next one will have to pay three bucks tomorrow."

Custody staff's growing vacation and holiday leave balances that were compounded by furloughs represent a future liability to the state of at least $546 million and could be more than $1 billion, state Auditor Elaine Howle warned in a report issued last week.

And if the governor's proposals are adopted by the Legislature, next year's state budget will bring much of the same - just packaged differently.

In February 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order requiring state workers to take two days of unpaid leave each month. Five months later, he added another day which resulted in a reduction of almost 15 percent in state workers' pay.

Exemptions were given to public safety agencies such as fire departments or California Highway Patrol but not the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Since prisons are 24-hour facilities, CDCR cannot allow its custody staff to take furlough time off without having individuals to replace them.

As a result, custody staff take home smaller paychecks for the same amount of work until they can schedule paid time off as their furlough leave.

"We estimate that more than 8.7 million hours of furlough credit will have been earned by correctional officers under this program by the time it is scheduled to end in June 2010," the state auditor's report said. "At the typical pay rate of $35 per hour for an officer with six years of experience, this represents a liability of $304 million."

To speed up the process, the state has set an expiration date for banked furloughs - they have to be taken by June 2012.

The state also demanded that furloughs be used before any other leave such as vacation or holidays.

Although many correctional officers have already used furlough hours they've accumulated, staffing formulas limit the amount of time off they can take, the report said.

On any given day, there are 12 "second watch" officers split between three shifts, to replace any of the California Institution for Women's roughly 400 custody staff. Time off is given on a first come, first served basis. The earliest one can ask for a day off is 90 days ahead of time.

Every day, at least five people are asking for the 90th day, because the previous 89 have been taken already, said correctional Officer Laurie St. Louis.

"I got exhausted with the system asking for furloughs," St. Louis said.

Since furloughs are to be used first, correctional officers can easily accumulate vacation and holiday hours which can be cashed out when they quit or retire.

"The state furlough program is the most significant cause of the accumulation of leave balances," the report said.

"This liability will likely increase over time as individuals receive pay increases or are promoted."

If paid out as lump sums when custody staff retire or quit, the leave balance represents a $500 million liability to the state.

If CDCR increases staffing or overtime to allow custody staff to take their accrued leave, liability to the state would jump to $940 million.

"Vacation time is piling up," Alexander said. "And we are all going to be on a hook for it. The baby boomers are retiring en mass, just like we were hired in the 1980s," he said.

"We are reviewing staffing formulas for accuracy, but changes in the formulas will need to go through the budget process," wrote Brett Morgan, a chief of staff for the CDCR Office of the Secretary, in a reply to the auditor's report.

Last year, CCPOA filed a lawsuit on behalf of correctional officers asking CDCR to pay full wages due or at least the minimum wage for all hours worked.

According to labor law you have to be paid in the same pay period in which you worked, said Diego Martin, fiscal and policy analyst with the Legislative Analyst Office.

In December 2009 a judge ruled in the correctional officers' favor but the ruling was stayed in April while an appellate court considers the case.

St. Louis, a single mom raising three kids, was looking forward to the end of June, when the governor's furlough order is set to expire.

"I thought that there is a little light at the end of the tunnel," she said. "And now his new budget has cuts that equal furloughs."

According to the governor's May budget revision, furlough Fridays would indeed end, but the governor is proposing a "mandatory personal leave program," estimated to achieve $795 million of state savings.

Under PLP, state employees' pay would be reduced by the equivalent of eight hours of pay each month, and in turn they would be credited with an equal number of PLP hours to be taken at their own discretion.

The governor also proposed reducing state employee salaries by 5 percent and increasing state employee pension contributions by 5 percent.

According to Peggy Banks, CDCR spokeswoman, the department is not commenting on Schwarzenegger's May revise because it's "too premature."

"I was looking forward to June," said Kathleen Jones, a correctional officer at CIW. "But his proposal did not surprise me. It just confirmed that he is not willing to allow us to have a normal paycheck. For the first time in 26 years I'm concerned about my future."